During the construction of residential and commercial buildings, wiring is installed prior to the installation and plastering of drywall. In particular, electrical boxes are attached to the building infrastructure such as wood or metal studs. These electrical boxes are junctions for switches, electrical outlets etc. Once the electrical boxes are mounted and the wiring has been routed from a main junction box to the individual boxes spaced throughout the building, the drywall installers install and finish the walls. Then the electrician returns to finalize installation and wiring connection of the switches, outlets and cover plates.
One process that is commonly used by the wall board installers is to lean the wall board up against the electrical box so that the electrical box makes an impression on the inside (non-exposed) side of the wall board. This impression marks the area the installer must cut away from the wall board to accommodate the electrical box. This step can damage the wiring exposed within the box. Another problem for the electrician occurs the wall board installer tape and mud the wall board joints. A switch box housing can often be placed at the level of a seam between adjacent horizontally extending wall boards (48″ from the floor) The wall board installer may pass his or her trowel over the exposed outlet box (after cutting an opening in the wall board) and may cover or partially fill the box with joint compound. This makes the electrician's job of connecting the wires to the switch or outlet more difficult and in some instances may require rewiring the electrical box.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,991 to Schuette, U.S. Pat. No. 7,075,008 to Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 3,015,408 to Campbell et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,538,202 to Shafer et al are prior art patents relating to electrical box covers.